Top award for Chinnor RFC under 16s
CHINNOR Rugby Football Club’s Under 16 Squad (Season 2008/2009) are the 2009 Oxfordshire Sports Awards Junior Sports Team of the Year.
The team was crowned at a glitzy awards evening organised by the Oxfordshire Sports Partnership, on Friday, November 13, at the Kassam Stadium.
The team beat off very stiff competition from the Abingdon Vale Swimming Club Under 18s and the Banbury Rugby Club Under 11s to take the title of Junior Sports Team of the Year, a category sponsored by Oxford City Council Leisure Services.
Chinnor Rugby Football Club?s Under16 Squad (season 2008/2009) have had an extremely successful year having won the Oxfordshire League Championship trophy in March 2009, beating their old rivals, Henley RFC at Henley?s ground. They also won the International Under 17 competition when the Squad travelled to Provins in France, on the early May Bank Holiday.
The Under 16s have become role models at Chinnor Rugby Football Club, and have put a marker down for all younger age groups to aim for. Many of the squad have been playing together since the Under 7s Mini-Rugby at Chinnor, and as a result of solid coaching from the team of volunteers has built an unrivalled team spirit together. All of the boys have developed into outstanding athletes with a strong sense of playing by the rules and supporting their fellow team members.
Councillor Bob Timbs, Executive Board Member for Leisure and Sport, presented the team with their trophy in front of over 320 guests. The team received a surprise gift from Dave Larham, Community Rugby Manager, London Wasps, who invited the whole of the winning team together with their coaches to watch London Wasps in action versus Llanelli Scarlets on Sunday 31st January 2010 at Adams Park, High Wycombe
The awards aim to recognise the sporting talent and dedication we see across the county throughout the year. The awards featured special recognition awards for Oxfordshire clubs who had achieved Club Mark and Charter Standard Community Club accreditation.
An informal world record attempt for the most number of return shots played in 60 seconds was attempted by Oxfordshire Table Tennis duo Karl Bushell (ranked No.1) and Neil Hurford (Ranked No.4). They put up a great performance and achieved 160, falling just short of the record which stands at 173 return shots played in a minute.
The 35 finalists in the 12 award categories were chosen from over 80 nominations in 2009. The amount of talent and true devotion and enthusiasm for their sport that was seen on the evening was enormous.
